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Matt Wittlief
Matt Wittlief was born on August 15, 1976, in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He went to Lutheran High School in Indianapolis where he became friends with future bandmates Andy Cook, Eric Dedert, and Chris Elmore. The group of friends went on to form Siphon in 1994. His brother, Phil Wittlief, joined Siphon shortly after its formation. He later went out to co-found the band Stop 12 with former Siphon member Andy Cook. Personal Life Matt Wittlief was born in the Chicago suburbs and moved to Indianapolis at the age of six. He and his brother, Phil Wittlief, both attended Lutheran High School in Indianapolis. Matt attended Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois, after graduating from high school in 1994 while a member of Siphon. While at Concorida, he majored in Mathematics and went on to attend Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1998 for graduate school. While at Purdue, he was a roomate of Tim Gober and dated Nicole Shelton. He received his Master's Degree in Mathematics in 2000, began a job at RCI in Indianapolis that fall, and married Nicole in July of 2001. He currently lives in Indianapolis. Siphon Matt was one of the founding members of Siphon in early 1994 and helped write their first song, "Cardboard Box". He was a member of Siphon and a principal songwriter during the band's entire history. Matt played guitar and occasionally sang back-up vocals. While playing for Siphon, Matt occasionally used the pseudonymn of Professor Qavaxx. Stop 12 As Siphon was breaking up, Matt and Andy Cook went on to form a new band. Matt had a backlog of new material that was not introduced for Siphon that served to help kick-off the new band . The band was initially called Sector 7G (named for the area where Homer Simpson worked at the nuclear power plant in the cartoon sitcom The Simpsons) and was later renamed Stop 12. Matt and Andy wrote or co-wrote all the Stop 12 material and traded vocal duties. Guitars and Style Matt bought his first guitar in early 1994 and shortly thereafter bought his second guitar, a cream Squier Stratocaster, which he played off-and-on through his entire career in music. He added a second Squier Strat (maroon) in 1995. He also had a couple of inexpensive pawn shop guitars in the early Siphon days - one of which was smashed by fellow bandmate Jeff Lucas at a show at the Emerson in early 1995. Matt then added a black Epiphone SG to his arsenal which was used during most of 1996 and 1997. During his time with Stop 12, he played a light blue Fender Cyclone and an Epiphone acoustic guitar. Matt relied largely on power chords for most of his writing and playing. He played a majority of the lead guitar assignments for Siphon and was ultimatley the only guitarist in Stop 12. His solos were generally simple, non-technical and were often filled with noise in the form of feedback or other techniques.